Author: Ethan Theo

Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles, has worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries since 1982 and has spoken at many venues including the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.

Categories
Operations

5 Ways Your Small Business Is Leaking Money

As a business owner, you know the importance of keeping a close eye on expenses.

After all, for a startup or small business, cash flow is everything. In fact, according to a study by financial services company U.S. Bank, as many as 82 percent of startups and small businesses fail due to poor cash-flow management.

While it may seem like money simply vanishes into thin air at times, we all know that the truth is that it’s going somewhere. Finding out where, exactly, your money’s going is important for maintaining a healthy income and expenses ratio, and to ensure that your company stays out of the red.

Taking a closer look at your operations and money management procedures, and making changes when necessary can help you to stay solvent. With this in mind, let’s take a look at a few common areas where small businesses tend to lose money.

  1. High Employee Turnover

While you might not realize it, keeping your current employees happy costs less than trying to recruit and train new ones. Not to mention there’s also the costs of downtime or additional stress that you and other employees will be under while having to pick up the slack. Bringing on a new employee is costlier than you might think and having a high turnover rate can cost your company more than it should. Instead, look to keep your team engaged and motivated at work. You’ll be able to benefit from lower turnover, higher levels of productivity, and happier customers too.

  1. An Outdated Time Tracking System

Another area where small companies tend to lose money is a lack of accountability when it comes to tracking employee hours. Relying on old fashioned timesheets makes it easier for less-than-honest employees to round up their hours, or overestimate time spent on projects. It also requires someone to enter the data manually into the payroll system, and leaves rooms for mistakes and potentially costly errors. Having a robust time tracking system in place can automate much of the work involved with time tracking and payroll processing. It’ll also help to ensure accuracy and reduce the chance of time fraud as well.

  1. A Lack of Organization

Organization in the workplace may not be something that you consider essential, at least not for your bottom line, but when it comes to organization, a lack of it can cost your company money. Consider that time spent searching for something, is time wasted. According to one study by Express Employment Professionals, out of 18,000 business leaders, 57% said they lose six working hours per week as a result of disorganization. Those hours can quickly add up. To combat this, make sure you implement systems at work to help keep everyone on the same page, and continually look for new ways to streamline processes and communication.

  1. Poor Accounting

To have any shot at success with your small business, you must have a firm grasp on your finances. If you don’t know how much you spend or where your money is going, then how can you make changes to better your company? There really is no room for error when it comes to finances. While programs like QuickBooks make it easier to manage your finances, if you’d rather not spend time working on the books, consider hiring someone to take over the job for you.

  1. Ignoring Outstanding Accounts

Ignoring outstanding accounts is another area where your company could be losing money. While it’s easy to ignore and forget about open balances and accounts, don’t make this mistake. If you aren’t being proactive about collecting payments from your clients or customers, then you could be setting your cash-flow up for a serious decline. After all, if your clients know that you won’t be charging a late fee, then what incentive do they have to pay you in a timely manner?

Often areas that you’d least expect can end up costing your company significantly. Inefficiency, wasted resources, and losing customers due to poor service, for example, could all prove to be damaging to a company’s bottom line. By continually monitoring your company, and looking out for areas where money and resources are being wasted, you can help to ensure that your business stays afloat.

Categories
Operations

Expanding Business? A Short Guide to Handling a Merger

When two companies combine, it is usually a strategic move aimed at helping both organizations thrive. However, it is likely that a merger will create some short-term chaos regardless of how well it is executed. What are some ways that both the buyer and the seller can prepare for two companies becoming a single entity?

Sellers Should Prepare Their Employees

If a company is sold, it could call into question the future of everyone who works there. While some people may be retained, the buyer may want to use its own people to perform certain tasks. Therefore, management should take some time to address what the sale means for the company as well as those who work for it well in advance of the sale closing. This may allow workers the chance to start looking for new jobs before they are let go.

Buyers Should Keep the Culture in Place

There is generally a good reason why a company is a target for acquisition. One of these reasons may have to do with the fact that the seller is a known brand in the marketplace. If that is the case, the buyer should not take any steps to change the brand or what it does best. Otherwise, it could turn consumers off and make it harder to earn a return on the investment made into the new business.

Sellers Should Know What the End Game Is

Those who are looking to sell their companies should know why they are selling and what they hope to accomplish. If the owner of the company being acquired wants to retire, he or she should make that clear from the beginning. This may make it easier to find the right buyer, which may result in the company being sold in a timely manner and for the right price.

Buyers Should Have a Plan Too

A buyer should know what it wants from the company that it is acquiring. For instance, a company may be acquired because it makes a product that the buyer wants the rights to or because it would rather acquire a startup before it becomes a primary competitor.
While they are relatively common, mergers can have significant implications for both buyers and sellers. Therefore, it is critical that there is a strategic reason as to why the merger is taking place and that it is executed in an orderly fashion.This may make it easier for the combined entity to enjoy success now and in the future.

Author Bio
Kara Masterson is a freelance writer from West Jordan, Utah. She graduated from the University of Utah and enjoys writing and spending time with her dog, Max. If you’re considering a merger for the first time, Kara recommends working with a professional like the Murphy Business Of Minnesota LLC to help you through a merger process.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Why Email Marketing Won’t Go out of Style in 2018

Many people believed that email marketing will become obsolete. Now, 2018 is just around the corner, and email marketing has no intention of going anywhere anytime soon. Digital marketers still use email, as it’s still one of the most effective marketing strategies. As a matter of fact, 91% of adults in the U.S. like receiving emails from brands they do business with. In addition, email marketing is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined.

That being said, email marketing is still being used and will continue to be used by businesses both big and small. Furthermore, email marketing is a cost-effective marketing strategy. That’s why small businesses oftentimes use email to grow their business successfully. Here are a few reasons why email won’t go out of style in 2018.

Effective lead generation

Having a subscriber list is always beneficial to your business. Not every website visitor who subscribes to your email newsletter is going to become a customer overnight. However, email marketing allows you to craft your messages well and nurture a relationship with your subscribers, as you slowly lead them down your marketing funnel.

That way, if your strategy is good, you’ll eventually convert leads into customers. Moreover, email marketing allows you to identify good prospects. After visitors decide to sign up for your email newsletter, you can identify leads by monitoring prospect’s interests, such as the number of emails opened and how many links they’ve clicked on in your email.

Showcases professionalism

Designing the email you’re about to send to your leads, prospects, clients or business associates is very important. People are more likely to take your offers seriously if the emails they receive from you have excellent design. You can customize your email template by adding elements, such as corresponding colors, fonts, content and logothat match your brand identity.

That way, your emails will showcase professionalism once they reach you customer’s or client’s inbox. Also, you can add your very own signature to the emails you send out. However, in order not to risk making a signature using an HTML editor, you can use an email signature generator to ensure everything is perfect.

It drives more sales

There’s a good reason why email marketing is still one of the most effective marketing strategies. The main reason is that it allows you to segment your email list and communicate with leads in many different ways. That way you can place your leads in different groups and use personalized content and offers to communicate your message to them more effectively. This helps deliver your messages at the right time, and speeds up the conversion process.

Moreover, you’ll get an immediate response, which will provide you with an insight into whether or not your strategies are working well. Furthermore, segmentation allows you to identify leads who are willing to take action straight away and separate them from leads who are still indecisive. The only thing left to do is customize content and offers, so that you can help them make the decision easier.

Improves retention rate

One of the key goals of every business is to retain customers. As a matter of fact, it’s 6 to 7 times more expensive to attract a new customer than it is to retain an old one. In addition, return customers oftentimes spend 67% more than new prospects. With email marketing, you can easily retain customers with specialized messages.

For instance, your emails can update customers about new products, services or sales. Also, you can offer your customers special occasion offers for birthdays, holidays and other events. Moreover, you can reward loyal customers via email or notify them about abandoned carts to remind them to finish the checkout process.

Email marketing is still a powerful marketing strategy, because it offers an effective way to target prospects and improve conversion, as well as customer retention rate. Email marketing is also very cost-effective, which is quite appealing to businesses, especially small businesses and startups. That being said, email marketing won’t lose its popularity in 2018.

Dan Radak is a marketing professional with eleven years of experience. He is a coauthor on several websites and regular contributor to BizzMark Blog. Currently, he is working with a number of companies in the field of digital marketing, closely collaborating with a couple of e-commerce companies.

Categories
How-To Guides

How to Effectively Market Your Crowdfunding Campaign

Funding a business in today’s world is hard. You might think, “Well, I could always ask for a loan,” and you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking so. In fact, there are many loans aimed at helping women or veterans break the small business glass ceiling, and these could be viable options depending on the nature of the business you are trying to fund. However, loans do require a level of commitment and good standing — not to mention the burden of having to pay the loan back will constantly hang over your head.

Amongst other options there is one that is gaining a lot of popularity today – crowdfunding. A crowdfunding campaign can be difficult and time consuming, but the results are worth the initial effort. Studies show that having a sound marketing strategy in place could either make or break your campaign. Here, we will discuss some marketing strategies to get people excited to crowdfund your business, focusing on whom you should try to reach, and how to target various audiences.

In general, an audience can be divided into three broad groups that should be targeted within your marketing strategy: personal relations, similar stakeholders, and social media followings.

Personal Relations

Personal relations consist of family, friends, and other people you might have some sort of close relationship with. You would need to approach these people differently as opposed to how you approach a stranger. Chances are some of your closest relations will already know about your campaign, whereas others may simply know the general idea but not the nitty gritty.

When outreaching anyone in this group, it is important to stay genuine and honest. No one likes to be approached, after years of no contact, with a request to part with their money. It would be unrealistic to expect someone you’ve barely kept in touch with to get excited and immediately agree to fund your business. That’s why it is critical to maintain good connections or rekindle any relationships you may have prior to introducing your campaign. While outreaching personal relations is relatively straightforward, you need to remember to give yourself enough time to do so and start planning your outreach in advance.

Similar Stakeholders

Similar stakeholders are those people, organizations, and/or communities that would relate to your project. This group will be integral to the success of your campaign since they are already invested in your idea. For example, if you are creating an app to research sea conditions, your similar stakeholders would include boat tour companies, recreational activity organizations, scuba diving clubs and online forums, fishermen communities and more.

When proposing your idea to this group, it is key to highlight how your campaign will particularly benefit them. Even if they can’t afford to contribute towards funding your business (especially in the case of smaller companies or individuals), these stakeholders might be willing to publicize your campaign on their social media pages or put up flyers on their bulletin board to spread word to their clients, thus generating more excitement and widening your target reach. Eventually, the hope is that these similar stakeholders will invest in your idea or even form some sort of business partnership if they are indeed benefiting from your project.

Social Media Followers

Your “social media following” is just that: all your contacts through various connections, aggregated into one group. Though statistics show that not many social media followers will convert into concrete funding, it still acts as a wonderful method to spread word of your campaign. Having a bigger, more relevant following will increase your chances of success. If you don’t already have a social media base, you need to build one. Then you will have to make sure your following is constantly engaged and remains loyal.

Engaging your social media following can be done in a variety of different ways. For one, video is a powerful visual tool, and it can help viewers perfectly visualize your campaign. Creating and sharing topical videos is a great way to publicize your ideas. Secondly, Twitter conversations allow you to reach people from all parts of the world. By engaging audiences with well-thought-out tweets and timely responses, you can become a respected voice in your field, in turn increasing the chances that they will be amenable to funding your business.

A group often overlooked within social media are bloggers. Today, bloggers and influencers are a surefire way to spread word of your campaign. Even if social media doesn’t yield high revenues in terms of actual donations, your efforts will allow for major publicity gain through various avenues.

When planning your crowdfunding strategy, it is vital to cover these three bases. Always remember to be informative and available to answer follow-up questions whenever they pop up. Being organized, informative and approachable, paired with the above tips, should help your marketing efforts result in increased conversions. Having a detailed and thorough plan is the best way to motivate people to fund your business.

 

Categories
People & Relationships

7 Ways To Celebrate Business Success In Your Small Business

Running a small business is a busy occupation that requires most of your time and effort. It can be hard to stop and appreciate your wins, big or small, but it’s important for you and your team to recognise the hard work that goes into a successful business. It’s also important to reward ourselves and acknowledge team efforts to create a company culture of motivation, comradery and satisfaction.

Sometimes, it can be hard to find the time to celebrate or to even know how to celebrate. Here are seven ways to celebrate success with your small business, be it with your team or yourself.

1. Acknowledge those who deserve it

Firstly, for celebrations to be effective, it’s important that achievements are rewarded fairly throughout your business. If some achievements are rewarded and others seemingly go unnoticed then it can be extremely frustrating for staff who may feel like they’re ignored.

Rewards and celebrations should be based on merit, not on office politics. When achievements are being celebrated fairly, your staff will be more motivated to reach their goals.

2. Dinner and drinks after work

When it comes to ways of celebrating company achievements, there’s nothing more simple and effective than dinner and drinks after work. This allows team members to interact and socialise in a relaxed environment and will help to build the team’s relationships. Of course, this occasion is better if the whole team is involved in the success.

3. Say thank you

The importance of clear and genuine appreciation for the hard work of your staff should not be underestimated. Not every goal has to be celebrated with a special event. Taking the time to pull staff members aside and thank them for their efforts can go a long way in keeping your team motivated.

If you want to congratulate your whole team, sometimes it can be better to congratulate them before a meeting. Your appreciation can be specific, or a general pat on the back to everyone. While a simple ‘thank you’ costs nothing, it’s always appreciated and can make a big difference to team morale.

4. Establish a tradition

Celebrations are important and enjoyed by everyone, so traditions that reward success are always successful. A tradition can be grand like an end-of-year party or as simple as Friday night drinks, but the aim should be to build trustworthy and family-like relationships within your business.

Traditions are something everyone can look forward to and participate in. Having traditions within your small business will help build loyalty and camaraderie. If you can create a tradition that celebrates wins, it will go a long way to ensuring continued success.

5. Create personalised perks

Perks and benefits are something businesses often offer from the outset, but their effectiveness can be hit and miss. Find out how your employees would like to celebrate success and take it into consideration. Tailoring perks to a team or an individual’s preferences is a great way to show your appreciation and keep employees motivated.

6. Plan an experience

If you and your employees are too busy to find the time or motivation to do something outside work hours, then planning an experience can be rewarding. Not only is it a way to celebrate but, again, it will help your team take some time off to relax and build relationships outside of work.

7. Time out

Sometimes the best way to celebrate success is to simply take some time off to chill out, recharge and look back at how far you have come. Reward yourself by taking the day off and enjoying some ‘me’ time. Even allowing your staff to head home a few hours early one day will be greatly appreciated. Just make sure they understand that this is because of all their recent hard work. Tell them to come back refreshed and ready to smash out the next project.

With our busy and hectic lifestyles, it can be difficult to stop and celebrate our successes and triumphs. Celebrating is important for recognition, motivation and appreciation. Whether it’s you who needs to celebrate, or your entire team, remember to say thank you, take some time out and do something enjoyable.

Author Bio:

Laura Martins is a content manager for RateCity, where you can make smarter financial decisions and compare thousands of financial options. In her time away from RateCity, Laura loves reading about tech and spending time with her dogs.